The ABC's of Beth
"The ABC's of Beth" is the ninth episode of the third season of Rick and Morty. It is the thirtieth episode of the series overall. It premiered on September 24, 2017. It was written by Mike McMahan and directed by Juan Meza-León. Synopsis Jerry is lucky with a lady and Beth recalls her childhood. Plot TBA Characters Major Characters *Rick Sanchez *Morty Smith *Beth Smith *Jerry Smith *Summer Smith *Tommy Lipkip *Keara Minor characters *Michael *Trandoor *Joseph Elai Lipkip *Pink sentient switchblade *Mr. Goldenfold *Principal Vagina *Jessica *Garmos Deaths * Several Froopians * Saldos * Garmos Locations * Replacement dimension * Froopyland * Alaska (mentioned) * School *Jerry's Apartment *Krutabulon (mentioned) *Renaldo's (mentioned) *Dimension without daylight saving (mentioned) *Antique Phone Rentals (mentioned) Episode notes Trivia *In celebration of season 3, Pocket Mortys' weekly updates will coincide with new episodes, including new avatars for players to collect. With the release of this episode came: TBA as avatars, and TBA to catch. *This is the first episode name of the series to include Beth's name. Most others use the name Rick (such as Rick Potion #9 and Total Rickall) while others use Morty (such as Mortynight Run and Morty's Mind Blowers), don't feature a main character name (such as Meeseeks and Destroy and Get Schwifty) or feature both main character names (in the case of The Rickchurian Mortydate). *Beth is aware of the fact that she is only one of many daughters from many universes *Jerry is a closet racist, beta-male sexist and selfish person. *According to Rick, an adventure requires conflict, stakes, a benefit for Rick, and Morty. *Some of the things Beth asked Rick to invent as a kid were a ray gun, a whip which forces people like the bearer, invisibility cuffs, a parent leg-trap, a lightning gun, a teddy bear with anatomically correct innards, night-vision googily eye glasses, sound-erasing sneakers, false fingerprints, fall-asleep darts, a lie-detecting doll, an indestructible baseball bat, a ladybug-shaped taser, a fake police badge, location-tracking stickers, rainbow-coloured duct-tape, mind-control hair-clips, poison gum and a pink sentient switchblade. *The song playing while Rick and Beth's clone Tommy is "Doo-doo in my Butt". *Gorgan shit *Tommy refers to Beth as "Beth the Destroyer". *Whether or not Beth accepted Rick's offer to clone her so she could pursue her own interests is deliberately left ambiguous, teasing the possibility only with her rapid shift into a more parental demeanor when the kids return home. Series continuity * The separation of Jerry and Beth from the episode The Rickshank Rickdemption plays a large role in this episode. * Twice in two sequential episodes now Rick can be seen drink out of a can from 'Foonies', first in Morty's Mind Blowers. * On the fridge, there is a picture of Rick and Mr. Poopybutthole smiling together. * On the fridge, there is a picture of Morty hugging a young Snuffles smiling together. * In accordance with Dan Harmon's stance on time travel within the series, Rick explicitly states that when he went to retrieve pizza from a parallel universe, he did not time travel to return immediately. He went to an alternate reality that did not create daylight savings time (which would make the time an hour earlier there), and simply stole pizzas from the counter. Thus, he did not place an order and wait, explaining how he returned almost immediately. Cultural reference *The title is a pun on the comedic horror film The ABC's of Death. *Rick references his understanding of Beth's frustrated feelings on him by alluding to Charles Manson, a convicted mass murderer. *Rick references the iPad when ranting to Beth. *Rick references Reddit, and a Star Wars character, R2D2, comparing the way he treated Beth to a father who designed a toilet that looked like R2D2, as a way of entertaining his kids, and getting acclaimed on Reddit for it. There is no currently known real-life Reddit post, or instance of such an event happening, though, so it's unlikely he was referencing to a real thing. *Rick compares Beth to former pro wrestler Steve Austin. *Summer mentions Facebook, where Jerry is said to have rants. *Jerry compares Keara to Cheetara from Thundercats. *Keara is a parody and pastiche of various tribal and hypersexualized aliens: **The Predators/Yautja (her elongated head and tendency to hunt other aliens for sport). **The Na'vi from Avatar (her blue skin, cat-like face, yellow eyes, and "Soul Bond" custom). **A certain Mutant prostitute from Total Recall. **Aayla Secura from Star Wars (her blue skin, brown clothing, elongated head, telekinesis and proficiency with bladed weaponry). *An alien in Tommy's play mentions the video game company Nintendo. *Rick references Rotten Tomatoes when he sarcastically calls Tommy's play "certified fresh". Rotten Tomatoes collects aggregate reviews for film and television in order to establish a film/show's quality as either "rotten" or " fresh". Picks that are "certified fresh" are works that have been critically acclaimed. *During Tommy's play, Beth dismisses her portrayal of pushing Tommy in honey as "fake news". This term was used predominantly during the 2016 US Presidential Election by Republican candidate Donald Trump in reference to disparaging media reports against him. *Beth compares the Floopians to the Muppets. *"Isaac Asi-hole" is a reference to science-fiction writer Isaac Asimov. *Beth references the television network ABC and their reality TV program "The Bachelor". *Rick mentions Blade Runner when discussing the possibility of cloning Beth. *Beth's choice whether or not to clone herself might be a reference to the philosophy of Søren Kierkegaard who said “The most painful state of being is remembering the future, particularly the one you'll never have.” Site Navigation Category:Season 3 episodes Category:Beth Episodes Category:Rick Episodes Category:Jerry Episodes